The Dead House - Kurtagich Dawn - Страница 19

From: AriHait558

To: RealxChick

Date: 6 October 2004

Subject: Where Are You?

Miss Confessional,

You haven’t come to confession in a while, and I fear for your heavenly soul.

Yours,

Benevolent Ari

PS—Will I have to keep calling you Miss Confessional forever? I could shake things up a bit and start calling you Miss Falls Flat on Her Arse?

Naida Camera Footage

Friday, 8 October 2004, 7:33 PM

Magpie House Roof

The camera wobbles; a tiled slate roof, slanted on both sides, comes in and out of focus as Naida moves towards a figure sitting near the very edge. Kaitlyn straddles the roof as though riding a horse, her back hunched. Naida’s breathing echoes in the camera’s microphone, unnervingly loud.

“What are you doing here?” Kaitlyn asks. She doesn’t turn around, and the microphone barely catches her words.

Out of breath, Naida replies, “I’m looking for you—what’s it look like?”

“How did you know I’d be up here?”

Naida focuses the camera on Kaitlyn’s back, but her knee can be seen, as well as the tip of a black boot.

“Carly told me that you hang by the old chapel sometimes. I was heading there when I saw you up here. Brooding, as usual. I want to invite you to my cousin’s house for Halloween. She’s going out of town and said I could throw a party.”

Kaitlyn doesn’t blink. “Get that thing off my back.”

Naida ignores her and the angle remains steady. “Are you game, or are you afraid?”

It seems, for a while, that Kaitlyn won’t answer. Then, slowly, she gets to her feet. The motion is lithe and fluid—easy—as though she’s three feet from the ground instead of three dozen. Her feet are bare, but she seems unfazed by the cold. She turns to look down at Naida, and the wind catches her hair, throwing it up around her.

Folding her arms, Kaitlyn says, “I’m no coward.”

Naida leans forward, indicated by the sudden decrease in distance from Kaitlyn’s face. “It’s so strange,” she muses, “to see my friend standing there, and yet not her. So different… yet the same.”

“Don’t confuse me with Carly,” Kaitlyn warns. “She might be easy to win over, but I’m not.”

“No,” Naida agrees. “I doubt you’ve had a friend in your life, have you, Child of Darkness?”

Kaitlyn’s face stills for barely a second, then her mouth quickly quirks up a fraction, but her eyes remain cold. “If I refuse to go, Carly won’t force me.”

Naida leans back, and the jerky camera movement indicates that she either folds her arms or switches hands. “I think I like you better than I thought I would.” She tilts her head to the side. “There’s depth in you. Unmeasured depth.”

“Dark waters run deep.”

“Shallow waters see the sun, though. And they’re warmer.”

Kaitlyn’s eyes glint with a kind of curiosity or amusement. “That’s true.” Her eyes flicker down to the necklace around Naida’s neck.

“Gorro, Kaitlyn!” Naida bursts out, a peal of laughter close behind. “Relax, doll, would you? I’ve got no agenda, okay? My cousin’s letting me use her house. I’m just throwing a party. Candy, booze, movies, and pizza. No reason to go all psycho-suspicious on me.”

Kaitlyn merely turns away. Naida gets to her feet, wobbling.

“Are you in?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Just remember: Carly’s my friend, sure. But I’m her friend too, and she wants to come. I made it early so she’ll be able to enjoy it a bit before your turn. Wouldn’t be fair of you to stop her.”

“It won’t make a difference to her if I leave after the transition. She can have her fun without me.”

“You know it will. It matters to her what you do. It matters to her what other people think, and if ‘she’ suddenly leaves just after she got there? That would look weird, and you know it. She wants you to come, Kaitlyn, and to have fun. She told me.”

Kaitlyn turns back, and her gaze never flinches. “I’ll think about it.”

“You do that. For both of you.”

[END OF CLIP]

From: RealxChick

To: AriHait558

Date: 8 Oct 2004

Subject: Weird Developments

My Benevolent Forgiver,

Yes, I realize that my confessions have been infrequent of late. I have a few things on my mind. I haven’t figured out, yet, if you’re cocky enough to think one of those things is you.

One hilarious development is that Naida actually followed me onto the ROOF to hunt me down and practically DEMAND that I go to her party. Have you met Naida yet? You should know that she’s a nut job. She’s probably planning to cut me into little pieces and serve me in a stew.

Grumbling and disgruntled and all of the above,

Girl Who Falls Flat on Her Arse

From: AriHait558

To: RealxChick

Date: 8 Oct 2004

Subject: Re: Weird Developments

Miss Clumsy, Bruised-Bum Confessional,

Since I don’t know Naida very well (we share no classes)—except that you hate her enough to confess to God-slash-the-empty-or-not-so-empty-confession-booth about her and curse the day Carly (?) met her—I really shouldn’t offer you an opinion.

But since I have far too much opinion for one single person, and since my opinion is usually very insightful, here’s my two pence: GO TO THE PARTY.

Live a little, you weird—YES, WEIRD—secretive girl with no name and plenty of angst. Go to the party, drink a little, relax, and let go. No harm in that, right? I’ll be rooting for your teen-coming-out-into-the-world-of-living-actual-people moment.

Ari

PS—I’m CERTAIN one of the things keeping you up at night is me. ;)

From: RealxChick

To: AriHait558

Date: 8 Oct 2004

Subject: Re: Re: Weird Developments

I suppose by “the-world-of-living-actual-people” you’re trying to tell me that you are not, in fact, a living person? How nice for you!

I will give my teen angst some indulgence for a bit, while I consider the impending party of doom.

PS—Is anyone of your gender not cocky, arrogant, and stupid? I’m perfectly willing to take back the stupid once you prove it. But you might be stuck with cocky and arrogant for life, soz.

From: AriHait558

To: RealxChick

Date: 8 Oct 2004

Subject: Death of Vocabulary

Soz? People still say soz??? I fear for the human race. I assume you mean sorry. Now apologize properly, you heathen.

From: RealxChick

To: AriHait558

Date: 9 Oct 2004

Subject: Re: Death of Vocabulary

Go to sleep, you (cocky, arrogant, STUPID) vampire! ;)